Mars rover Curiosity: Images from the Red Planet

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Tracks from the first drives of NASA's Curiosity rover are visible in this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rover is seen where the tracks end. The image's color has been enhanced to show the surface details better. The two marks seen near the site where the rover landed formed when reddish surface dust was blown away by the rover's descent stage, revealing darker basaltic sands underneath. Similarly, the tracks appear darker where the rover's wheels disturbed the top layer of dust.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

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This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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In this telephoto view, a boulder roughly the size of the Curiosity rover is indicated to provide a sense of scale. The boulder is roughly five miles from the rover's current location.

Credit: NASA

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On Sol 32 (Sept. 7, 2012) the Curiosity rover used a camera located on its arm to obtain this self portrait. The image of the top of Curiosity's Remote Sensing Mast, shows the Mastcam and Chemcam cameras.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Curiosity's view of the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, showing the rugged terrain that represents the rover's ultimate goal.

Credit: NASA

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A green dot marks the spot where Curiosity landed within Gale Crater.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This full-resolution self-portrait shows the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover from the rover's Navigation camera. The back of the rover can be seen at the top left of the image, and two of the rover's right side wheels can be seen on the left. The undulating rim of Gale Crater forms the lighter color strip in the background. Bits of gravel, about 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in size, are visible on the deck of the rover. This mosaic is made of 20 images, each of 1,024 by 1,024 pixels, taken late at night on Aug. 7 PDT (early morning Aug. 8 EDT). It uses an average of the Navcam positions to synthesize the point of view of a single camera, with a field of view of 120 degrees. Seams between the images have been minimized as much as possible. The wide field of view introduces some distortion at the edges of the mosaic.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Tracks in the Martian soil from Curiosity's first test drive on Aug. 22.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Seen here is the end of Curiosity's 7-foot robotic arm. The arm maneuvers a turret of tools including a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and mechanisms for sieving and portioning samples of powdered rock and soil.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This color-enhanced view shows NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. It was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This still from a set of images shows the movement of the front left wheel of NASA's Curiosity as rover drivers turned the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. Engineers wiggled the wheels as a test of the rover's steering before a test drive schedule for Aug. 22.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This image (cut out from a mosaic) shows the view from the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover toward the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, where Curiosity is likely to begin its ascent through hundreds of feet (meters) of layered deposits. The lower several hundred feet (meters) show evidence of bearing hydrated minerals, based on orbiter observations. The terrain Curiosity will explore is marked by hills, buttes, mesas and canyons on the scale of one-to-three story buildings, very much like the Four Corners region of the western United States. A scale bar indicates a distance of 1.2 miles (2 kilometers). Curiosity's 34-millimeter Mast Camera acquired this high-resolution image on Aug. 8, 2012 PDT (Aug. 9 EDT). This image shows the colors modified as if the scene were transported to Earth and illuminated by terrestrial sunlight. This processing, called "white balancing," is useful to scientists for recognizing and distinguishing rocks by color in more familiar lighting.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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The buttes and mesas on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp can be seen in the distance, beyond dark dunes, in this white-balanced image from Curiosity's Mast Camera. A larger, color mosaic is at Nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars. It was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars. It was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Curiosity has been sending back images from Mars for over two weeks now, including this shot of its own shadow.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover's landing site within Gale Crater on Mars. It was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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This full-resolution image shows part of the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover taken from one of the rover's Navigation cameras looking toward the back left of the rover. On the left of this image, part of the rover's power supply is visible. To the right of the power supply can be seen the pointy low-gain antenna and side of the paddle-shaped high-gain antenna for communications directly to Earth. The rim of Gale Crater is the lighter colored band across the horizon. The effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground can be seen on the right side of the image, next to the rover.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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RAW NASA CAPTION: These are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover's "head" or mast. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out by blasts from the rover's descent stage thrusters. These are full-resolution images, 1024 by 1024 pixels in size.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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The distant blob seen in the view on left, taken by a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover, may be a cloud created during the crash of the rover's descent stage. Pictures taken about 45 minutes later (right) do not show the cloud, providing further evidence it was from the crash.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, informally called Mount Sharp Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak of Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers), taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has not yet been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Here, NASA provides some perspective for that first, cockeyed landscape photo. The black-and-white scenes on either side of the tipped-up center rectangle are computer simulations built from data provided by two orbiting satellites, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express.

Credit: ASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

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In this handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, a view of Mount Sharp is seen in the distance taken by NASA's Curiosity rover front hazcam and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Aug. 6, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif.

Credit: NASA

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This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, PT, and transmitted to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft. It was obtained two-and-one-half minutes before touching down on the surface of Mars and about three seconds after heat shield separation. It is among the first color images Curiosity sent back from Mars.

The resolution of all of the MARDI frames is reduced by a factor of eight in order for them to be promptly received on Earth during this early phase of the mission. Full resolution (1,600 by 1,200 pixel) images will be returned to Earth over the next several months as Curiosity begins its scientific exploration of Mars. The original image from MARDI has been geometrically corrected to look flat. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbe.

Credit: NASA

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Scorch marks left by Curiosity's landing rockets are clearly visible in the color image that also shows the rim of Gale Crater.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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In this image released by NASA on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012, a self portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover was taken by its Navigation cameras, located on the now-upright mast. The camera snapped pictures 360-degrees around the rover.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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In this handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT, and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

Credit: NASA

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In this handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT, and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

Credit: NASA

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In this handout image provided by NASA, one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PT, and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbe.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images

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Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity team member Miguel San Martin, chief engineer of guidance, navigation and control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (left) celebrates with Adam Steltzner, entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), after the successful landing of Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 5, 2012.

Credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

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In this photo provided by NASA's JPL, this is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, PT. It was taken with a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible. Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off. The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs in the camera's detector because of the saturation. As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.

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Shannon Lampton, and Charlene Pittman, both educators with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, cheer as they watch NASA's Mars Curiosity rover land on Mars during a special viewing event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Aug. 6, 2012 in Huntsville, Ala.

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In this handout image provided by NASA, one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PT, and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbe.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images

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Gabe Salas, of Rockledge, Fla., and Gloria Lloyd, of Chapel Hill, N.C. post on Facebook as they watch NASA's Mars Curiosity rover land on Mars during a special viewing event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, August 6, 2012 in Huntsville, Ala.

Credit: AP Photo/The Huntsville Times, Eric Schultz

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In a photo provided by NASA, the Mars Science Laboratory team in the MSL Mission Support Area reacts after learning the the Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars and images start coming in at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Mars, Aug. 5, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif. The MSL Rover named Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes.

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Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Richard Cook, MSL deputy project manager (left) and Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead, right, point to the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 on the surface of Mars, during a news conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

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In this handout image provided by NASA, one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PT, and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbe.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images

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NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute are seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descends to the surface of Mars Aug. 5, 2012.

Credit: NASA

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In this handout image provided by NASA, the head of the remote sensing mast on the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, Curiosity, shows seven of the 17 cameras on the rover.

Credit: NASA

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Curiosity's navigation cameras have been deployed around the rover. The cameras will allow the rover, and scientists back on Earth, to direct Curiosity as it travels across Mars.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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A view from one of Curiosity's navigation cameras shows the rim of Gale Crater, the rover's landing spot.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This image shows a closer view of the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover and a destination nearby known as Glenelg. Curiosity landed inside Gale Crater on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT) at the blue dot. It is planning on driving to an area marked with a red dot that is nicknamed Glenelg. That area marks the intersection of three kinds of terrain. Starting clockwise from the top of this image, scientists are interested in this brighter terrain because it may represent a kind of bedrock suitable for eventual drilling by Curiosity. The next terrain shows the marks of many small craters and intrigues scientists because it might represent an older or harder surface. The third, which is the kind of terrain Curiosity landed in, is interesting because scientists can try to determine if the same kind of rock texture at Goulburn, an area where blasts from the descent stage rocket engines scoured away some of the surface, also occurs at Glenelg. The science team thought the name Glenelg was appropriate because, if Curiosity traveled there, it would visit the area twice -- both coming and going -- and the word Glenelg is a palindrome. After Glenelg, the rover will aim to drive to the base of Mount Sharp. These annotations have been made on top of an image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

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Mars rover Curiosity "treasure map"

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This photo from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken on Aug. 28, 2012, after the rover drove 52 feet (16 meters) to begin its weeks-long drive east to the first science target Glenelg. It's the rover's longest drive yet.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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A simple zoom into the Gigapan Mars image provided a unreal close-up of Martian terrain.